Almost Lm8m in speeding fines over 11 months

About 259,000 speeding fines were issued in the first 11 months of last year, Malta Transport Authority chief executive officer Gianfranco Selvaggi said yesterday.

Mr Selvaggi was speaking at the launch of a road safety campaign, dubbed Safety First, at the ADT's offices in Sa Maison.

The substantial amount of money that remained from the fines after the expenses incurred to operate speed cameras were deducted - amounting to Lm120,000 - were channelled into a fund that will finance the safety campaign along with other money donated by sponsors.

Mr Selvaggi said an average of two fines per family were issued. With each speeding fine costing about Lm30, almost Lm8 million would have gone into the coffers. That is slightly lower than the revenue raised from the 290,000 speeding fines issued in 2004.

Urban Development and Roads Minister Jesmond Mugliett explained that the road safety campaign is made up of a series of public relations exercises targeting specific road users with the first being a drive to increase the use of seat belts by passengers and the installation of child safety equipment on the back seat of vehicles.

Malta has one of the lowest road accident fatality rates. But Mr Mugliett said: "The death rate in Malta stood at about 33 for every million people in 2004. However, there is always room for improvement because every death on our roads can be avoided; this is the aim of this initiative".

He mentioned other measures such as the introduction of speed cameras in specific road stretches which, the minister said, helped to reduce or virtually eliminate traffic accidents caused by speeding.

"Though cameras are not popular with the public, it is evident that traffic accidents in notorious black spots, such as the bend at the end of the Mriehel bypass, decreased drastically following the installation of speed cameras," he said.

A recent study revealed that though front seat belt use is relatively high at 97 per cent, the use of rear seat belts is very low with just 26 per cent of adults and 15 per cent of children using them.

Tickets issued for failure by drivers and passengers to use seat belts after their use became mandatory last year amounted to 12,649 for drivers, 649 for front passengers and 758 for rear passengers - a total of 14,056. In the first four months this year (January to April), the figures stood at 4,315, 406 and 457 respectively for a total of 5,178.

Local wardens will be issuing warnings rather than fines for the first offence by passengers not wearing a seat belt in the rear of the vehicle.

Enforcement officers assisted by policemen will be deployed at key junctions where they will take notice of vehicles in which passengers are not wearing their seat belt and a notification will then be sent to them.

Mr Selvaggi also spoke about plans by the ADT to introduce narrow lanes on Malta's roads to be used by cyclists and cycling racks for keeping bicycles.